


system of touch

by fullonmonet



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fashion & Models, M/M, fuckbuddies to lovers? is that a trope?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-30 10:01:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20095450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fullonmonet/pseuds/fullonmonet
Summary: “Karin’s like family to me, so that includes you,” Sasuke begins. “Even though you said you’d murder me.”“You heard that, huh?” Naruto says with a slight laugh, face entirely red. “You just seemed like an uptight asshole who cares more about his work than his employees.”





	system of touch

**Author's Note:**

> yas hello welcome to my incredibly self-indulgent fashion au ✨ if any of you are familiar with the names mentioned, i'm sorry for the weird censoring!! paranoia strikes, i'm afraid. this fic is also unbeta'd.
> 
> anyway, thank you so much to my loves on anitwt a and k for helping me with sasuke and team taka and to my theyfriend for reminding me to go to bed when i'd stay up to write!! 💕 and ofc to everyone on twt who put up with my stupid crying tweets
> 
> will explain some terms in the endnotes! title's also from head over heels by tears for fears 💘

It starts with a drumbeat. The room contains the bass. The audience, enveloped.

Sasuke's stoic as Karin's fixing the hem on a model's skirt, thread in her mouth. Jūgo has all the first outfits lined up by the order on his clipboard, barking to be heard above the music. Suigetsu's somewhere doing a model's hair. The fumes are heavy backstage as the first model walks—a chunky, blocky lime green tailored blazer that hangs over loose, stark white linen pants that are held together by drawstring—so Sasuke can't see how the audience is reacting to it from this angle, but he really, _really_ wants to know.

“I really like that one, you know,” Karin offers once the model wearing the blue poppy-patterned, flouncy little sheer gauze dress goes up to the runway and Sasuke relaxes for a bit. “It’s reminiscent of Yayoi Kusama.”

“Yeah, that was the idea,” Sasuke says. The next model walks past them in a white silk blouse with a red paintstroke print, tucked into sapphire blue wool tailored pants that taper above her ankles, her heels with little baubles on the straps. “It’s not too much, is it?”

Karin stares at Sasuke. “What are you talking about? This is your _brand_.”

“Sasuke!” Ino screeches as soon as she lays eyes on him, her high voice rising above the generic EDM of the afterparty. She runs to him as fast as her Issey Miyage heels could carry her, and her long blond hair’s slicked back into a straight ponytail, so it doesn’t get in the way when she hugs him. “Sasuke! One of the editors said he loved your show! Neji, do you know him?”

“No,” Sasuke answers.

“You should since he’s doing your write-up for our Fashion Week coverage,” Ino explains, like she’s talking to a child. “I’ll introduce you later. Where’s your assistant? The pretty redhead?”

“She said she was meeting someone here. And don’t say that when she comes back,” Sasuke scolds her.

“Or what, you’ll be out of an assistant?” Ino teases. She swirls her ice-cold martini in its glass and lets out a sigh. “I’m good, aren’t I?”

“Debatable,” Sasuke deadpans.

Ino rolls her eyes at him, her lashes fluttering. A designer turned her down once because she’s too pretty to be a model, which was fine because he released, in her words, a collection so lacklustre it would have relied on a pretty face to elevate it instead of letting it bare itself for what it was.

“Anyway,” she changes the topic, her martini now gone so she could pluck the olive out of the glass, “Sai’s here.” She laughs when Sasuke scowls out of habit and goes, “He _does_ have a good eye.”

“Doesn’t mean we have to hang out and be friends,” he points out.

“Whatever,” Ino rebuts. She fishes out a box of cigarettes from her little clutch—

“Whose is that?” Sasuke asks.

“Hm?” Ino lifts up her clutch as if the cherry pink graphic sakura print painted on the Saffiano leather is new to her. “You like it? An intern from Bunka made the design.”

Sasuke nods. “Too bad I don’t get interns,” he says while Ino busies herself with lighting her cigarette, the gold of the lighter glinting between her fingers. He declines when she offers him a stick, and she laughs while blowing smoke in his face.

“Don’t even pretend like that isn’t praise,” she tells him. Her lipstick leaves a deep red stain on the cigarette’s butt. “It’s your style, that’s why you like it—Sada-san! Your work on the new NOIRS collection is _divine_…”

Just like that, with a brush of her long nails across Sasuke’s shoulders, Ino’s gone.

Sasuke takes that as his cue to leave—he wants to rest after all so he can do all of this again tomorrow—but someone catches him just before the exit. “What?” Sasuke hisses.

“Have you seen my cousin?” the guy asks. If Sasuke could describe his entire existence in one word, it’s “shabby.” Maybe also “orange.”

“Do I _look_ like I know your cousin?” Sasuke demands.

The guy rolls his eyes and retorts, “You get off on not knowing who work for you? _Karin_, asshole. Have you seen her?”

“I’m not Karin’s babysitter,” Sasuke hisses back. “Now if you’ll excuse me…”

He manages to leave the club undisturbed, but not before he hears the guy telling Karin loudly to “Get another fucking job before someone gets murdered.”

***

“Good morning,” Karin greets Sasuke, handing him a cup of iced coffee from the store in Omotesando he likes. “I heard you met Naruto.”

“How’d he get in last night?” Sasuke asks before taking a sip of coffee. “With his awful manners and all.”

“He was in Hake’s show,” Karin explains. “He’s doing another show tonight, Hyuga Hinata’s.”

“And you’re telling me this why? We don’t do menswear.”

At that, Karin’s face starts burning a deep red, matching the bright shade of her dyed hair. “I was thinking we could expand. I worked on some designs with him, if you wanna see.”

“_Now_?” Sasuke asks, his brow raising at the thought.

“No!” Karin shrieks, causing some onlookers in the venue to turn their heads. “But I was also thinking we could check out the Hyuga line. I got tickets.”

Sasuke shakes his head at that. “I got an invitation to see Junya Wotanabe with Ino, but we can go see the Commes des Arçons exhibit now.”

Karin visibly deflates, but she nods anyway. “Sure. I’ll just give my extra ticket to Suigetsu,” she says.

When they get to the exhibit, the first thing that comes out of Sasuke’s mouth is, “I begged Kuwakubo-san to give me an internship here when I was in college.” He didn’t get it, of course, but there aren’t any hard feelings—he landed one through Meiji’s program and met Ino, who’s currently editor-in-chief of Rogue Japan at an early age.

Looking at the designs, the signature red cartoon heart and the performativity of it interacting with other elements within a piece, he’s alight. “I feel like I’m still searching for my personal style,” he admits to her, which makes Karin’s mouth drop open, agape.

“What do you mean?”

“You see that heart? It’s an accent on an otherwise plain white shirt, but it plays well with graphic or with print. On a seemingly incoherent collection, that heart signifies who designed it.”

“So you want a logo,” Karin summarises.

Sasuke scoffs, “You don’t get it. I just want _something_.”

“That’s a lazy way of doing it,” Karin points out. “No offence to Kuwakubo-san.”

“Are you saying I’m not lazy?” Sasuke asks with a wry smile.

“I’m not saying anything.”

Ino is silent—sullen, almost—when she and Sasuke step out of the Wotanabe show, her lips pursed in their nude shade. “He’s such a man,” she complains. “All talk and no follow-through.”

“I don’t think that’s fair,” Sasuke says, making Ino snort.

“Of course you’d think so. You’re a man. Where’s the afterparty tonight?”

It’s definitely in another Omotesando club, but Sasuke can’t be bothered to remember the name. “Dunno,” he answered.

“You’re useless,” Ino admonishes him. “Hang on.” She calls her assistant to get the details, but Sasuke keeps shaking his head to her annoyance. “Why not?”

“Not in the mood.”

Sighing, Ino puts her phone down then flips her hair over her shoulder. “There’s a natural wine bar that just opened near Cat Street,” she suggests.

“I think I’ll pass,” Sasuke tells her. Just then, he remembers Karin. “I’ll go check if the Hyuga Hinata show is still on.”

Ino raises her pristine brow at him but passes on her media pass. “They’ll probably let you in anyway, but you know. _I’ll_ be drinking. Feel free to join if the mood strikes you!”

He takes the ID pass from her then waves her goodbye, heading back to the main hall of the venue to check for the show while she slips out the back to get a taxi. The show is still in full swing when he enters, so he finds a good space at the back.

Hyuga Hinata likes a very delicate sillhouette. Even her menswear are wispy and willowy, a daring shift from Tokyo’s oversaturation of straight lines. Sasuke scans the area by the foot of the runway stage and sees a woman standing there, in a striking white kimono and hair a deep and radiant purple-black so gleaming it looks almost liquid, definitely Hinata herself.

Karin’s cousin is next to walk on the stage, in a loose silk shirt with a muted grey pattern that could almost pass for traditional, paired with _zori_ and a pair of wide-legged pants, except the shirt’s opened up way down to his chest to show off his gleaming skin. As if on purpose. Structured.

The rest of the S/S collection passes Sasuke by in much the same way, leaving his mind swimming in silk and gauze.

He finds Karin and Suigetsu outside of the hall, waiting for Naruto.

“How was Wotanabe?” Karin asks as she tries her best to hide her surprise that Sasuke’s even there.

“Same old,” Sasuke answers. “It was boring. What do you think of this one?”

Suigetsu just grins, showing off his sharp teeth. “You two couldn’t be any more different,” he points out. “It’d be nice to see you try something girly like this.”

At that, Karin rolls her eyes. “I like the quietness of the patterns and the colours she chose,” she offers to Sasuke. “It’d be an interesting contrast to the sculptured suits you prefer.”

Sasuke nods and takes a mental note of that, his mind wandering back to that just barely discernible pattern—was it flowers?—on Naruto’s shirt. He could run his hands all over the fabric.

And speak of the devil, Naruto shows up in his shabby best, a baggy orange t-shirt tucked into what Sasuke recognises are Once Studio jeans, a thin coat slung over one arm. “Hey, thanks for coming!” he says brightly to Karin and to Suigetsu. His smile falters slightly at the sight of Sasuke but he tries again: “Thanks for coming. Hope you liked the show.”

“It was… interesting,” Sasuke concedes.

“We’re gonna go get dinner,” Karin says. “Coming?”

“Is it okay? Don’t wanna intrude or anything…” Naruto’s voice trails off into a sheepish smile that he gives the whole group. He has insanely white teeth. Bleached blond hair suits him, too. It’s the tan.

“‘Course not!” Karin insists. “It’s just us and Jūgo’s gonna catch up. There’s a good yakitori place near Jingumae.”

“Sounds good to me,” Suigetsu says with his grin back in full force. “We could all use a drink.”

“Taxi’s on Sasuke!” Karin then says with a loud laugh.

“Sorry I’m late,” Jūgo says as he strips off his coat and puts it on the hanger by the counter seats. They save him the seat next to Suigetsu and Sasuke right away orders Jūgo’s favourite cut of neck and a tall glass of beer. “How was the lineup today?”

“We should’ve gone to the Yohji Yamomoto one,” Suigetsu says. “Since that’s all you ever wear.”

“Sasuke doesn’t do menswear,” Jūgo says with a shrug.

“I’m sure you can still pull them off,” Suigetsu adds.

“We don’t make any in his size,” Sasuke tells them. “He’s bigger than Naomi-san.” The girl working the counter hands the draft of beer to Sasuke, who passes it on to Jūgo before lifting his own cup of sake up to the group. “Cheers!”

They order so many things that the rack containing the _binchōtan_ used for grilling is taken up by their orders, the bamboo skewers piling up in the little cups set in front of them. Always in charge of the bill after, Sasuke’s gotten the hang of his team’s habits—Jūgo prefers internal organs and grisly cuts riddled with cartilage, Karin plays it safe with breast meat and thighs. Suigetsu will eat anything set in front of him but his favourite is shishito peppers brushed with tare, downed with an entire glass of beer. He’ll also keep ordering rounds for everyone.

“Do you want any more?” Sasuke then asks, turning his body to Karin’s side, where Naruto’s seated.

“Huh? No, I’m good, thanks,” Naruto politely declines, a little red peeking through his neck and the tips of his ears from the alcohol. “Thanks for inviting me.”

Sasuke waves it off. “Karin’s like family to me, so that includes you,” he begins. “Even though you said you’d murder me.”

Karin chokes on her drink—a salted lemon highball—and coughs loudly into the back of her hand. “Sasuke!”

“You heard that, huh?” Naruto says with a slight laugh, face entirely red. “You just seemed like an uptight asshole who cares more about his work than his employees.”

“Naruto, you dumbass, you just met him!” Karin says as she digs her elbow into Naruto’s side, similarly flushed. “Sorry you had to hear that, Sasuke.”

“Hey, all your glasses look empty!” Suigetsu crows.

“Text me when you get home,” Sasuke says to Karin, Jūgo, and Sasuke when the pile into their taxi. Then he turns to face Naruto and asks, “What about you?”

“I live in Ebisu, which is the other way,” Naruto babbles.

“Oh? I do, too. We can take one together.”

“Come on, it’s fine, I can take a train—”

“It’s past twelve; the trains are closed,” Sasuke points out, his eyebrow raising at Naruto. “Unless you mean you’ll walk home?”

Naruto rolls his eyes, his words slurring as he says, “You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

“Frankly, I couldn’t care less.”

“If you say that, people will think you care.”

“That’s their problem, not mine.”

“‘Cause you’re just _so_ above it all.”

“Is this how you treat everyone who buys you dinner?” Sasuke asks as he wraps his scarf around his neck.

Sasuke gets a scowl from Naruto, who says, “I can pay for my own taxi, you know.”

“It’s fine,” Sasuke brushes him off. “Please let me.” A taxi’s approaching, so Sasuke holds up his hand then lets Naruto climb in first when the door’s opened.

“To be clear, I don’t owe you anything,” Naruto says when he and Sasuke are both inside.

“It’s fine,” Sasuke says again. “Where do you live?” It turns out Naruto lives a couple blocks away, near enough that Sasuke decides to get dropped off at Naruto’s as well and just walk to his building.

It’s a short drive, and one they get through in silence. By the time they get to Naruto’s apartment complex, Naruto beats Sasuke to the punch, laying down two thousand-yen bills on the little plate by the driver.

“Sorry, can’t let a pretty guy pay everything for me,” Naruto says. Huffing, Sasuke leaves the car before waiting to see if Naruto’s getting his change, the motion of getting up reminding Sasuke that he’s drunk.

“Pretty guy?” Sasuke echoes once the taxi’s gone and made a U-turn.

“What about it?”

“If you’re trying to flirt with me, you could use a little more style.”

At that, Naruto’s eyebrows shoot up and he bursts into laughter. “Hell no, I’m not flirting with you. You’re sexy, all right, but still a dick.”

“Can you make up your mind?” Sasuke sighs. “Call me sexy or call me a dick.”

“Fine.” Naruto turns on his heel to open the door to his apartment. “You coming or what?”

The apartment is, for lack of a better word, messy, but that doesn’t matter because Naruto is pulling him in for a kiss, openmouthed and heavy. Sasuke pins him to the wall, just right before where they have to take off their shoes, and licks a fat stripe up Naruto’s neck.

“So I’m sexy?” Sasuke teases against Naruto’s skin. He’s so warm, like trapped heat; Sasuke could keep his arms wrapped around him.

Naruto lets out a laugh as he fumbles with Sasuke’s scarf. “Why the fuck are you wearing this?” he breathes out. He finally unravels it, dumping it on the floor along with Sasuke’s leather jacket. Sasuke scowls at him as he helps Naruto out of his coat. He practically rips Naruto’s shirt away from its tuck to feel the taut skin of his stomach, his chest.

Something in Naruto’s voice breaks, right in Sasuke’s ear. A whine that makes Sasuke shiver. He kisses Naruto one more time before he lowers himself to mouth along the line of Naruto’s stomach above his jeans, his hands skirting along the edge of the hideous orange shirt to get Naruto to take it off.

“_God_, wait—” Naruto has a hand on Sasuke’s hair, tugging as if to want him to stop, but Sasuke just keeps on going, undos the button of Naruto’s jeans, and lowers it past his ass. He drags down Naruto’s underwear next— “Come on, man,” Naruto whines again. He’s hard (Sasuke is, too, but that’s beside the point) and seems to jump when Sasuke puts his mouth on him. “Shit, fuck, shit, fuck—”

Meanwhile, Sasuke closes his eyes and takes it slow. Languid strokes of his tongue along the length. His teeth clack against a metal ball on the tip of Naruto’s dick and it’s precisely in that moment that Sasuke can feel his brain shut down, but he keeps on going, letting it warm up in his mouth as he licks into it gently.

Naruto goes quiet all of a sudden and Sasuke realises he likes seeing him like that, slack-jawed with a heaving chest. He’s wearing a necklace, a (most likely fake) deep teal gemstone tied together by leather cord. Sasuke finds it so oddly sexy that he picks up the pace, just to see Naruto break.

“I’m close,” Naruto gasps after a while, his skin visibly jumping when Sasuke fondles him by the balls, his mouth laying kisses along the length, each with its own swipe of tongue. They make eye contact, and Sasuke can feel it all the way to the curling of his toes. Naruto’s eyes are glazed over.

Sasuke lets go for a bit, using only his hand to stroke Naruto’s length. There’s a sharp tug on his hair that says he should get back to it, but he needs to catch his breath, run his tongue over his chapped, swollen lips. When he brings his mouth back, it’s to suck on the head, which doesn’t get him far because Naruto literally shoves him off as he jacks himself off to orgasm.

His cum squirts on to Sasuke’s cheek and runs down his neck, but he’s too much in shock to get rid of it just yet, his mind ringing with the sound of Naruto when he comes—

“Shit, sorry, that was rude,” Naruto gushes from where he’s glued to the wall. “You okay?”

Sasuke finally wipes the cum off his face but stares in mild disgust at it cooling sticky between his fingers. “I’m fine. I just need to wash this off.”

“Uh, bathroom’s that door behind the kitchen,” Naruto says as he points it out in the darkness. He watches Sasuke get up from the floor and notices how hard he is underneath his pants. “Can I…?”

“I’m fine,” Sasuke repeats himself. “I’ll just wash up and go.” He doesn’t get to see Naruto’s look of disappointment, but he hears it en route to the bathroom: “Oh. Okay. I’ll see you around?”

***

“Do you have your menswear sketches with you?” Sasuke prompts Karin. It’s a slow morning at the office as Tokyo Fashion Week is dwindling to a close, but Sasuke’s sure the pace will pick up come the afternoon, when a shipment of fabric is arriving for next year’s F/W collection swatches.

Karin tucks a lock of hair behind her ear as she digs up a sketchpad from her bag. She closes her laptop before coming over to Sasuke. “You did a whole floral F/W collection two years ago, remember? I kinda took inspiration from that with this piece…” The first drawing she shows him is a burnished orange tailored suit, the blazer covered in flowers of the same colour, with wide shoulders and a narrow waist. It’s paired with cigarette pants.

Sasuke hums as he goes over the design then asks, “How do you envision the flower pattern? Is it a pattern or…?”

“It’s, uhm… I wanted them to be graphic cutouts, solid so they aren’t made of gauze or tulle.”

“Isn’t this Naruto’s colour?”

“Well, yeah, but I just wanted a colour that felt more like fall. Florals in spring is just… severely overdone,” Karin says, her smile turning wicked. “‘Naruto’s colour,’ huh.”

Sasuke clicks his tongue at her then flips the page without asking her to. It’s a summery outfit: black khaki shorts with a sewed on printout of a Hokusai wave and a light-coloured, slouchy sleeveless top with a similar woodblock print (so specified by Karin in the design), tied together by a pastel pink canvas belt. “Do you think we can get the pattern to show up well on linen?” he asks as he reads the fabric specifications she had in mind.

“I was thinking of rendering the print to a pixelated style, just to make it work,” Karin answers.

It’s a satisfactory enough answer that Sasuke just nods insted of grilling her further. “Where’s Jūgo?” he asks.

“He said he was getting coffee.”

“I need to talk to him about operations,” Sasuke clarifies. He’s hit with inspiration and is itching to work on something, but not before getting Jūgo’s recommendation that it’s feasible. He puts his hand on Karin’s sketchpad and asks, “Can I go over this some more tonight?”

“Oh, yeah, of course! Feel free to leave comments.”

“I like what you have so far,” Sasuke says. “We can finalise some designs and make mock-ups.”

Karin’s jaw drops at the announcement and so she asks, “Are you for real? I could get Naruto to swing by and model them for us—No?”

“It’s okay, there are others. Ino’s been telling me about this up and coming guy, Kiba.” Kiba’s getting booked and _fast_, not that Karin needs to know. The word around is that he’s primed to be the next face of Y2.

“That’s fine,” Karin concedes but with a frown. “It’s just that I made these clothes with Naruto in mind…”

“In any case, it won’t just be him modelling these,” Sasuke tells her.

“You mean—” Her shriek is loud when she does realise what Sasuke means. She also ends up giving him a hug. “Thank you so much; this is a huge opportunity!”

In his surprise, he hugs Karin back.

The first thing Ino does is laugh into her highball. “Does Karin know?” she asks.

Sasuke pokes glumly at his piece of sea bream nigiri and says, “I don’t think I can tell her this,” before popping the piece into his mouth.

“So you’re not planning on seeing him again either?”

“Why do I feel like I’m being judged for this?” Sasuke counters.

Ino’s eyes widen in shock, her hand flying to her chest, and she scoffs. “Whatever, Sasuke. You take everything as judgement.”

Sasuke exhales, but then Ino continues: “You really hurt his feelings by not letting him suck your dick.”

“So what do I do? Get his number from Karin and schedule a retrial?”

“I’m sure it’ll work,” Ino chirps. She orders a handroll of salmon roe then sips on her highball gingerly, just smirking at him. “I mean, I trust that you sucked his dick well enough.”

“I hate you,” Sasuke deadpans.

***

He doesn’t get Naruto’s number from Karin; he gets it from Naruto himself at a chance run-in when Naruto visits Karin at the office. The first person Naruto sees is Sasuke, who’s on his way to the toilet, and he clears his throat.

“Is Karin here?” Naruto first asks.

“She slipped out for some lunch,” Sasuke says. He points at the closed glass door in the centre of the office. “Why don’t you have a seat at my desk while waiting?”

“Are you sure?”

“Go ahead.”

Naruto hesitates for a while, scanning around the busy office before saying, “Hey, you kinda left me hanging last Friday.”

Sasuke stares at him as if to say, _Really? We’re in my fucking office_, but he grabs Naruto by the wrist anyway and leads him to the toilets, into one of the cubicles. Once he’s shut the door behind them, he teases Naruto, “Can’t stop thinking about me, huh?”

“Just wanted to return the favour,” Naruto says before he pushes Sasuke against the wall and kisses him. His knee is between Sasuke’s legs, the pressure really sweet and making Sasuke gasp as Naruto presses down harder. He’s nibbling on Sasuke’s bottom lip, and Sasuke is _so _weak, he can feel his mouth slacking to let out a moan.

“Make it quick,” Sasuke groans when Naruto finally gets down on his knees, separating Sasuke’s sweater from his pants. Sasuke leans his head against the bathroom cubicle and lifts his hips when Naruto pulls down his pants. He reaches out his hand to cradle Naruto’s head, feeling the softness of his hair.

Naruto smiles against Sasuke’s bare skin, right on his hip. It’s soft and tender, but his smile is wicked. He digs his fingers in Sasuke’s skin when he takes him into his mouth, sighing as Sasuke grips his hair harder.

Naruto goes fast, like Sasuke tells him to, and spends a good amount of time on sucking on his head while stroking the length. Sasuke can only try to find something to grab on to—he tries pushing Naruto away as a warning that he’s about to come, but Naruto doesn’t wanna fucking _move_. He keeps his mouth on Sasuke, eyes blissfully shut as Sasuke comes into his mouth, the tops of his cheeks a bright pink.

There’s a ringing in Sasuke’s ears, like his brain’s all turned into mush. And Naruto just grins up at him with a shiny, swollen mouth…

“Asshole,” Sasuke grumbles as he fixes himself up. Naruto exits the cubicle to go wash his hands.

“You told me to make it quick,” Naruto teases him. He leans back against the counter while Sasuke splashes cold water on his face. “I can go all night, babe.”

Sasuke scowls at him. “Knock it off.”

“Fine,” Naruto concedes with a shrug. He leaves the toilet first and Sasuke waits a while to do the same.

On his laptop in his office is a Post-It note: _Here’s my number in case you change your mind_.

***

The number just sits in Sasuke’s phone, unused. He only remembers when he boards a flight to Rome for a company trip and finds himself seated next to Jūgo, who’s already clocked out with a huge pair of headphones. The fact that he only remembers now is a sore reminder that Ino makes fun of him for being a bitch who puts his work first every single time.

(“Like you’re one to talk,” grouses Sasuke. “When was your last relationship, college?”

Ino sticks her tongue out him and says, “I just haven’t met anyone suitable enough. What’s your excuse?”)

In any case, he can’t text Naruto till he gets back to Tokyo. Maybe by then he’ll figure out what to say.

They grab a late dinner after checking in, some pasta and a bottle of wine to share. It’s Jūgo’s first time and even that they’ll spend a good chunk of their time in Rome in an office isn’t enough to hinder his curiosity and excitement.

“We can get a late start tomorrow morning,” Sasuke tells them. “Just get some rest tonight.”

“I planned our free day itinerary during the flight,” Karin brings up, making Suigetsu groan.

“No plans,” Suigetsu complains, his exhaustion peeking through his words and stringing them together. “Let’s just hang out and get drunk.”

“You don’t wanna see the Vatican?” Karin asks. She’s slightly startled and put out.

“I’m not religious,” Suigetsu argues.

“We should still go see it,” Jūgo says. “I heard it’s beautiful.”

“It is,” Sasuke contributes. “I went there a couple years ago.”

“So that’s settled,” Karin says brightly. “The Vatican in the morning then some shopping at La Rinascente before our flight.”

“It’s not much of an itinerary,” Jūgo tells Suigetsu with a laugh.

“I just didn’t wanna wake up early,” Suigetsu grouses. “But sure, it sounds great. Go churches.”

Sasuke laughs behind his own glass of wine. “Should we get another bottle?”

(“My team comes first,” Sasuke decides. “They joined me for a reason and I can’t let them down.”

“I hate you. I know exactly how you feel,” Ino says with a grumble.)

Sasuke walks slower to stay with Karin while she takes pictures of every building bathed in warm light.

“Hey, stand over there,” Karin instructs him as she points at the quiet corner of the street, lit by a wrought iron street lamp. Sasuke dutifully does so Karin can take his picture. “I’m sending this to Naruto.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Relax, I’m just teasing him about you,” Karin tells him.

“About what?”

“That I’m in Rome with my evil boss.” Karin waggles her eyebrows at him with a grin and Sasuke just lets out a sigh.

Sasuke points out, “He knows I’m not evil.”

“How so?”

“You didn’t bother correcting him?” Sasuke then demands, not really sure if sucking Naruto’s dick qualifies him as not being an evil boss to his cousin. Without bothering to wait for a response, he switches topics. “How are the samples going?”

Karin shows Sasuke her phone gallery, swiping through pictures of skeletons of rendered clothes, a blazer that’s lacking an inner lining. There’s also one of Naruto sewing on a piece of fabric with a printout to a pair of shorts.

“So that’s why Naruto came to the office,” Sasuke blurts out.

“Yeah, he used to help me all the time when I was still starting out at Taka,” Karin explains with a laugh. “Auntie Kushina taught him how to sew. And I didn’t wanna bother anyone else, you know? We have that big fashion show coming up. Plus the retail expansion.”

“Jūgo’s handling that,” Sasuke says with a wave of his hand.

“It’s not like this is important,” Karin continues, “so I can just do this on my own time.”

“It _is _important,” Sasuke stresses. “It’s the future of Taka.”

They’ve completely slowed to a stop in the middle of an empty Roman street with no idea how to get back to the hotel. Jūgo and Suigetsu have long gone as well, but Sasuke’s sure they’re just as lost, exacerbated by how drunk they were when they left the restaurant.

Karin frowns and flushes a deep red, like she’s full to bursting. “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking too much about this. It still feels like something I’d do for fun, you know,” she gushes out.

Sasuke nods as if he understands, but he’s really exhausted his efforts trying to make things as good and as perfect as he can make them. It’s not like he can force this lifestyle on his teammates either, especially with the knowledge that it’s unhealthy. “I trust you,” he says finally, “but you have to start understanding that you’re no longer responsible for just your own work.”

“Yeah,” she agrees with a nod. “Thanks.”

Sasuke takes another good look at the streets and says, “Come on, I think we passed through there before,” when he sees one with a vaguely familiar name.

***

Ino calls Sasuke during his morning coffee run to ask, “_Are you free tonight? You remember my friend Shikamaru, right?_”

“The pretentious writer?” Sasuke quips. He deposits a couple coins into the cafe’s tip jar then takes his iced coffee outside to continue the conversation.

“_He has a book launch tonight at Nanzuka and it’s in conjunction with his girlfriend’s photo exhibit. Real reason is that I want you to check out Temari’s stuff. See if you like it._”

Sasuke sighs, readjusting his phone as he takes a sip. “What time should I meet you?” he asks.

“_Seven. Let’s eat at that place with that amazing ume-ochazuke after?_”

The book is titled _Somebody Says This_, an anthology of essays about, in Shikamaru’s words, the stupid shit people say that make life seem unreal. Temari’s collection seems focused on ephemerality, the perennial Japanese obsession. Things like a foot in a puddle, soaking through the red high heel.

After the initial toast, Sasuke and Ino start somewhere in the middle, Ino’s hand curled into Sasuke’s arm while her other holds her champagne flute. As they get to a picture of a model eating sushi while in a very graphic Maschino and narrow cat-eye sunglasses, Ino stops with a tap of her fingers into Sasuke’s bicep.

“Is that what you wanted me to see?” Sasuke asks.

“Yes, but that’s not important right now. Look to your left,” Ino tells him with her voice turned low. “Is that Naruto?”

Sure enough, it’s him, talking to someone with bright red hair and an entirely black ensemble. Beside him is a woman who laughs as she tucks a lock of pink hair behind her ear.

“Shibuya’s a very insular place,” Sasuke notes.

“Go say hi,” Ino urges him, shoving him with a grin. “Come on.”

Before she can beat him to it, Sasuke blurts out, “Naruto.”

Naruto turns his whole body to face them, his own surprise making him say, “What are you doing here?”

“Attending the exhibit,” Sasuke answers drily. “This is my friend, Yamanaka Ino.”

“No way, _the _Yamanaka Ino?” Naruto looks surprised—and embarrassed—to see her next to Sasuke. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Uzumaki Naruto.”

“I’m Gaara, Temari’s sister,” the guy with the red hair introduces himself to both Sasuke and Ino. He holds his hand out formally for a shake, which they both take. “How are you liking the exhibit?”

“I brought Sasuke here in the hopes that Temari would collaborate with him,” Ino confides before turning her attention to the woman beside Naruto, giving her a dismarming smile. “And you are?”

“Haruno Sakura,” she says with a shyer smile.

“She’s a doctor,” Naruto offers.

“Really!” Ino enthuses. Her hand slips away from Sasuke entirely as she says, “Come see the exhibit with me. I’d love to hear your thoughts.”

Sakura giggles as she lets Ino sweep her away. “I’m not good with art,” she confesses.

“Don’t worry, just try your best,” Ino insists. When Sakura takes Ino’s extended hand, they’re gone.

Gaara excuses himself, too. “I’ll go attend to my sister’s guests,” he says. “Please enjoy yourselves.”

Sasuke watches Gaara walk away, up to the point where Gaara bows to a couple dressed in kimono, who are presumably the owners of the gallery. Gaara’s also wearing a beautiful, seemingly custom-made kimono, which made for a funny contrast earlier with Naruto’s oversized outfit, a common style in Shibuya lately.

“Smooth,” Naruto says, which jolts Sasuke out of his thoughts.

“What was?” Sasuke asks.

“You ignore me for weeks then introduce me to your friend, the editor-in-chief of Rogue, to…” Naruto’s face scrunches up as he thinks of a word that Sasuke ends up supplying:

“You mean to talk to you?”

“Cute.”

“I do have an explanation,” Sasuke brings up. “I was abroad—”

“Yeah, I know.”

“I was busy, too. I don’t tend to think about other things when I’m working.”

Naruto’s annoyed, that much Sasuke can tell, but he tries to keep it down. He starts walking in the opposite direction of Sasuke and Ino, so Sasuke follows him.

“Were you expecting something different?” Sasuke then asks. He’s no longer seeing the exhibit, which feels like a shame, but his eyes keep darting towards Naruto—his eyes are bright and clear, the tops of his cheeks a really pretty red.

“You’re such a dick,” Naruto scoffs.

“I’m being honest,” Sasuke points out. “You can ask Karin, anyone on my team, really—even Ino. They’ll all tell you the same thing.”

“Which is…?”

“All I do is work,” Sasuke answers simply, “so you should manage your expectations a little.”

Naruto ends up laughing at that. It startles Sasuke until Naruto says, “Man, I just wanted to get laid. I’m not asking you to fucking _marry_ me.”

Sasuke keeps quiet, mostly because he feels his brain short-circuiting. He downs the champagne he forgot is in his hand then hands it off to a passing server in favour of a fresh glass. “This event is boring,” is all he manages to say.

With his own champagne flute, Naruto’s face splits into a wild, wide grin. “Should we get out of here?”

Turns out Sasuke isn’t above going to a love hotel. The room they get isn’t as bad as he expects it to be, but he doesn’t have time to get acquainted with it before Naruto pushes him on the bed and straddles his hips. Naruto shifts his weight forward so he can bend down and kiss Sasuke till his mind goes hazy.

Naruto’s relentless, grinding his hips into Sasuke’s so that Sasuke’s gasping and hard. He sits up too for a bit, back straight and seemingly composed, his hands placed squarely on Sasuke’s stomach to keep himself steady. Sasuke reaches up to Naruto’s thighs and keeps his hands there.

“We’re not getting anywhere if we stay like this,” Naruto points out. His voice is breathy and husky and he clears his throat.

“I want to,” Sasuke argues, just for the sake of it. Naruto rolls his eyes and works on unbuttoning Sasuke’s shirt, cursing as his fingers slip on the mauve-coloured silk. At least he remembers to be careful.

The silk slips away from Sasuke’s body, revealing his entire stomach and chest, and Naruto clears his throat once more before getting rid of his own sweater and the button-down underneath, stumbling on his words: “You’re…”

“Sexy?” Sasuke supplies.

“Yeah, that.”

With a toss of his clothes to the floor, Naruto returns his attention to Sasuke, facing him full-on with a sunny smile. His teeth gleams against his skin and so does his hair and Sasuke keeps thinking he was born with it, even if he can see the little roots in the hotel room’s ambient lighting.

Sasuke pulls Naruto down to kiss him some more and so he can murmur, “You’re gorgeous,” in Naruto’s ear. Not despite the messy, bordering on sloppy, kisses, but because of it. His saliva-slicked mouth and flushed face, the way Naruto shivers against his touch.

“Just fuck me already,” Naruto groans. There’s a condom in the back pocket of his pants that he gets out and throws towards the bed while he lifts up his hips to lower his pants, wrestling with taking the whole thing off when he realises he can’t get a good angle.

His mouth is wet and warm as it licks over Sasuke’s collarbone, leaving soft kisses that make this _noise_ that just goes straight to Sasuke’s dick, making him squirm and grab Naruto’s ass to squeeze it, as if in retaliation.

“I’m taking these off now,” Naruto then announces, his hands right over the belt and zipper of Sasuke’s pants. He undos them just to free Sasuke’s dick and give it a stroke. Sasuke keens and lowers his pants himself, just down to the midpoint of his thighs, but it’s enough for Naruto to sit pretty on.

“Where’s the lube?” Sasuke asks, his voice scratchy.

Naruto swears when he sees that he has to pick up the lube they bought in the convenience store on the way, because they dropped it on the floor on the way in. He tosses the bottle to the bed then climbs back on top of Sasuke, his piercing glinting on his dark cock.

Sasuke can’t help himself—he runs his thumb over it, keeping a light touch. Naruto whines.

“Does it hurt?” Sasuke asks.

“It’s gonna hurt more if you don’t fuck me already,” Naruto grouses as he sits back and waits for Sasuke to put the condom on then lube himself up.

“Could you be quiet,” Sasuke hisses. He wipes the excess lube on his hand on the bedsheet and lies back, enjoying the show of Naruto hovering his hips over Sasuke’s dick and gradually lowering them with one hand to keep Sasuke’s dick in place and the other square on Sasuke’s shoulder to keep himself steady.

His eyes slip shut and his mouth slacks open, a moan drawing out of him. Sasuke’s captivated and fully subscribed.

When Naruto starts moving, it’s everything at once. Him bending forward to kiss Sasuke. Sasuke’s hands flying to grab his ass as he fucks into Naruto on his way down. The cold flash of Naruto’s dick piercing before it warms up between them. Naruto’s just in his ear, filling his head with noises.

“Shit,” Naruto exhales once he’s leaned back to catch his breath. He stokes himself languidly and rolls himself the same way, just to let Sasuke rest, too. But Sasuke’s over it and flips them over so he could fuck him harder and deeper.

He stalls when he realises he’s about to come and he ends up searching Naruto’s face for clues.

“Do it on my face,” Naruto demands.

“You’re annoying,” Sasuke tells him. He pulls himself away from Naruto and gets rid of the condom, kneeling over Naruto to jack off over his face. “And disgusting.”

“You’re doing it,” Naruto retaliates, his eyes wide open.

“Shut up, I’m close.” And just when Naruto shuts up, he comes, spilling all over Naruto’s cheeks and lips. It’s so satisfying in a way Sasuke can’t place, like he’s getting it vicariously from Naruto.

“Well, thanks,” Naruto sighs. Sasuke collapses on the bed and Naruto crawls forward to kiss him, still achingly hard.

“Let me,” Sasuke says as he cradles the back of Naruto’s neck and jacks him off till he’s coming all over Sasuke’s stomach.

Sasuke scowls at that and with the cum that Naruto’s smeared on his face from kissing. He wipes his face with the back of his hand and reaches for the tissue box on the bedside table the staff seem to meticulously replace each time to wipe the cum off his stomach. “Here,” he says, handing the box to Naruto. “You got something on your face.”

***

Sasuke accompanies Karin to the textile place in Arakawa. It’s a place he hasn’t seen since his own college days at Bunka, so there’s a nostalgic feeling that he gets walking through the place and eyeing all the fabrics. He sees a couple he likes but knows can’t use for his own line… so he briefly thinks about making a custom piece for Naruto—

“This is an interesting one,” Karin says as she shows him an indigo silk covered with a white pattern of tight rings.

“It’s _shibori_,” the owner of the shop explains. “If you’re looking for cheaper styles, we also have cotton.”

“This is beautiful,” Sasuke cuts in. “How much per metre?”

Karin balks at the price, but Sasuke orders it anyway. In their office is a thick ringbound collection of fabric swatches that Sasuke has to update regularly, but he buys enough to make a whole piece.

“We also have some new _tsutsugaki_.” The owner leads them to another corner of the shop where cranes and bamboo motifs are abundant.

It’s annoying to go through so many repetitive motifs; Sasuke feels his attention slipping, so he leaves it up to Karin to dig through for something. She eventually finds one with spider flowers that Sasuke can already imagine being cut into a _haori_.

While the shopkeeper goes to fix up their orders, Sasuke tells Karin, “I want you to take a picture of that _shibori_ and send it to Tenten as reference. Ask her if she has anything in the warehouse that’s similar. Doesn’t have to be made the traditional way.”

“What about thickness?” Karin asks. She’s whipped out her phone and started taking notes.

“Something on the sturdier side,” Sasuke decides. “Tell her to send enough for a full suit.”

The shopkeeper returns with the purchased fabric and the receipt and maintains her bow until they exit the store.

As they go walking around the area, a thought occurs to Sasuke, which he voices out to Karin: “Don’t you find it funny how you’re here with me?”

Karin’s brows furrow together as she asks, “What do you mean?”

“You graduated with a degree in biochemistry,” Sasuke points out, “but you’re here buying Japanese textiles with me.”

Life’s funny like that. With her dyed bright red hair and undercut, multiple piercings on each ear, it’s almost easy to forget she gave him a resumé that was almost all scientific research. She had difficulty finding a job and applied to Taka out of desperation. “What did you want to be as a child?” she asks.

Sasuke thinks about it before finally answering, “Policeman,” and Karin laughs. “Let’s have lunch in the area before going back to the office.”

At home Sasuke rolls out the long piece _shibori_ cloth in the living room. A corner piece of no more than five centimetres by five centimetres was cut out for Taka’s swatchbook and it still shines beautifully on the white tiled floor. Cloth like that is normally used for kimono, but Sasuke thinks it’d look nice as a shirt with a flowing sillhouette.

Sasuke thinks about it as he goes to make sukiyaki for dinner. As it boils away in its clay pot, he decides to fuck it and text Naruto. _You home?_ he asks. _I made dinner_.

**Naruto:** what did you make

**Sasuke:** [IMG_1010.jpg]

**Naruto:** where do you live

It takes ten minutes for Naruto to get there, his coat just worn haphazardly over his body to protect him from the cold. “What’s up?” he asks. “Bet you didn’t just invite me here for sukiyaki.”

Sasuke sighs as he leads Naruto to the living room to show him the silk lying on the floor. “I need your measurements,” he says by way of explanation. “But we should eat first.” He can’t gauge Naruto’s reaction at all and so pushes it out of his mind in favour of cracking eggs into bowls for them to dip the sukiyaki meat into.

“Thanks for having me,” Naruto says as he takes a seat at the dining table. “Even if it’s for work.”

Sasuke’s image is in serious need of PR. “Just because I’m making a shirt it’s work?” he asks.

“Someone’s majorly unaware of what he does for a living,” Naruto says drily. “Thank you for the meal.” He fishes out one of the slices of cooked beef from the clay pot and dips it into the raw egg before setting it on top of his bowl of cooked rice to eat.

In contrast, Sasuke gets a piece of napa cabbage. “This one’s for fun,” he explains before eating the cabbage.

“I can’t believe your idea of having fun after work is to do more of your work.”

“I thought you don’t care about that,” Sasuke points out. “Now you’re criticising me for it.”

“I don’t care. I’m just surprised,” Naruto says. “Must mean you really love your job, huh.”

“You won’t survive this industry if you don’t love it,” Sasuke tells him.

“Not like my job at all,” Naruto then quips.

“You don’t like modelling?”

Naruto stops to think about it, even setting his chopsticks down on the table. “It’s nice and all, but I don’t get paid. A couple nice shirts won’t cover rent,” he says. “Besides, I kinda wanna do something that means more than just being a clothes hanger, you know?”

That makes Sasuke pause as well. Of course he views fashion as art and respects the traditions that go into it, but the industry still relies on margins, which often means cutting corners wherever possible and almost always on the people involved. “What would you want to do?” he asks.

Naruto’s sheepish as he admits, “I wanna be a nurse… or maybe a teacher and work with kids. That’d be fun, I think, but I need to save up to go back to school and get a licence and it’s—it’s hard, you know. I can’t really let go of this job yet.”

“I hope you don’t get stuck,” Sasuke offers. It’s not much, barely anything at all.

“Sorry, I don’t even know why I told you this,” Naruto says with a shake of his head. “Must be a total bummer.”

The corners of Sasuke’s mouth twitch as he says, “I _was_ going to give you that shirt I’m making.”

“What, really?” Naruto gives a shy laugh, the tips of his ears going red. “I know I said shirts don’t pay rent, but it’s still nice. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Your food’s really good, too. I’m coming over twice a week.”

“Hold still,” Sasuke complains after dinner as he wraps his measuring tape around Naruto’s chest. Naruto’s giving him this silly smile like he’s teasing Sasuke. “What’s so funny?”

“You smell really good. What _is_ that, sandalwood?”

“It’s called oud wood.”

“Smells a bit like Sensō-ji,” Naruto quips.

Sasuke smiles at the joke but tells Naruto to be quiet anyway. When he’s done taking measurements of Naruto’s arms and waist, Naruto grabs his wrist and pulls him in to kiss. Sasuke lets go of the measuring tape to tangle his fingers in Naruto’s hair as he kisses him back, tongue slipping into Naruto’s mouth.

Naruto pulls his head back briefly to ask, “Where’s your room?”

***

Ino stands up to kiss Sasuke on the cheek, her hand on his waist. “Thanks for having coffee with me,” she says. “How’s the new collection coming?”

“It’s coming,” Sasuke answers cryptically.

“I’ll see it soon enough anyway,” Ino sighs. “So Neji wants to write an article on the state of Harajuku”—Sasuke groans at that—“and I wanted to pick your brains a little.”

“Have you interviewed Pico-san yet?” Sasuke asks.

“She’s pregnant,” Ino reminds him.

“So?”

“You know I like doing these things personally. She sent an e-mail, but that’s it.”

Sasuke stirs his coffee with a spoon. “What do you want to know?”

Ino shows him her Instagram bookmarks. “Check these out. Neji says he can’t describe Harajuku’s style.”

“There’s nothing to say,” he tells her as he goes through each post. He makes clothes in similar blocky, loose, oversized shapes, but as he looks at each outfit, he just feels overwhelmed. Drowning. “We’re living in a post-Kuwakubo world.”

“We’ve come a long way since our old days,” Ino says with a laugh. Then she adds, “I think people are just mourning the loss of subcultures people have come to know Harajuku for.”

“Those styles are easily replicable,” he says with a wave of his hand. “Don’t ever remind me about the old days.”

“I wish I still had pictures. We could put those in the write-ups.”

“_Don’t_.” He laughs, however. “Your combination _oni_ Ronald McDonald outfit, I still remember.”

“Okay, _frosted tips mohawk_,” iterates Ino as she knocks off one finger per incriminating word.

“What angle was Neji hoping for with this article?” Sasuke has to ask.

“‘The Death of Harajuku,’” Ino says with a snort. “He’s brilliant otherwise. I _do_ want a Harajuku article, just because it’s so close to my heart, but that much isn’t true.”

“Your bias is showing,” Sasuke says with a laugh. “So how’s that girl—”

“Naruto’s friend?” Ino’s face takes on a completely different emotion as she tells him, “Her name’s Sakura. I’m seeing her again tonight, and it’s going to be the absolute highlight of my day.”

He hasn’t seen Ino look at all carefree like that, with her hair straight down and flowing past her shoulders and a touch more blush on her cheeks. “What’s the plan?” he indulges her.

“Figure skating,” Ino divulges. “Then dinner at this fantastic Italian place.”

“_You_ suggested figure skating?”

Ino pouts. “It was all Sakura’s idea and I already told her that anything athletic is beyond me, but I can’t help it! She’s so cute when she suggests something… Anyway, enough about me. How are you and Naruto?”

“Fine.”

“_Fine_? Sakura took me home the night of the exhibit because you ran off with him,” Ino reminds him.

Sasuke bristles as he tries to elaborate. “We’re… casual.” He watches Ino’s meticulous eyebrows shoot up and so has to clarify, “He said he just wants to get laid.”

“And how do you feel about that?”

“I have work.”

“Yes, we all have work, but how do you _feel_?”

Ino can hit the mark on the head when she wants to, her words cutting and precise. She drums her fingers on the table, relentless, her nails making an inane rhythm.

Sasuke has to really think about it, like his stunt with the shirt and inviting Naruto over for dinner. The finished shirt’s on a hanger in his office, because Naruto’s dropping by that day to help Karin with sewing. And it makes him nervous to think about giving it to him…

“I think I feel something serious,” Sasuke admits. “Not that it matters.”

“I’m asking your assistant about him,” Ino threatens. “I seriously don’t think this is still casual, for either of you.”

That’s frightening to think about. But that fucking shirt in his office feels like a confession. He can’t tell what he wants, but he thinks he’ll know when he gives it.

“Earth to Sasuke, what’s on your mind, sweetie? You look like someone’s gonna eat you alive.”

“It’s probably true.”

The thought’s pushed back when Sasuke gets back to the office with coffee for the rest and Karin greets him with a wide smile. “Do you want to see the finished designs?” she asks.

“They’re finished?” He smiles out of excitement and follows Karin to the room in the office they use for projects, the sewers they hire on contract gone home for the day. Some of the mannequins have unfinished clothes for their upcoming show, but none of Karin’s designs are on them. Instead, they’re laid out on the table with hangers.

Karin goes ahead to call Suigetsu to model for them, her cup of iced coffee in hand to lure him out of his work.

“You got one for me too, boss?” Suigetsu asks when he saunters into the room. He barks out for Jūgo to come in as well and see the show.

“Let’s start with the this one,” Karin says as she hands over the burnished orange suit. Realised like this, it makes sense, and Karin’s made it out of a gorgeous tweed with gold threading through it gives it a metallic shimmer; the flower cutouts are made out of the same material with a tiny gold accent as a centre.

On Suigetsu it seems to ripple like water in the light. “Would you fuck me?” he asks.

“Not even in a four hundred thousand yen suit,” Sasuke says drily as he takes a picture of Suigetsu through his phone. “Turn around.”

“This looks amazing,” Jūgo butts in as he enters the room and reaches for his own coffee.

“Not so fast,” Karin chides him as she plucks the coffee from his hand and replaces it with a suit made with the fabric they requested from Tenten, a cotton blend with the distinct ring pattern. “I think this’ll fit you so go put it on.”

Jūgo dutifully goes to change, turning his head to scowl at Suigetsu for smacking him in the ass.

***

Sasuke doesn’t see Naruto for a while. He brings the shirt with him home and keeps it on the rack he leaves separate from his closet for outerwear. The shirt stares at him, like beady eyes, and he _knows_, but he also lost the drive that compelled him to do anything about it especially now that he’s rushing to put another show together before spring.

But it does wear him out to see it every morning and evening after a point. He texts Naruto about meeting him on the way home one evening and he could rattle off a bunch of places as suggestions but Naruto beats him to it by saying he can just meet Sasuke at home when he gets there. The thought makes Sasuke chew on a thumbnail on the train ride to Ebisu Station.

**Sasuke:** I don’t have much time to make dinner.

**Naruto:** UberEats?

They get Yoshinoya—Sasuke with an order of unadon and Naruto with his extra brothy gyūdon—which arrives just after Sasuke and Naruto meet in front of Sasuke’s front door and head inside. They eat in silence for what feels like a good part of it, Naruto more or less finished with his food when he asks Sasuke, “How’s work?”

“It’s good… Karin’s designs are nothing short of sublime, so we’re doing another show for it to present to the investors,” Sasuke answers. “We’re trying to expand into menswear and need the capital.”

“That’s great, though!” Naruto agrees. “Congratulations.”

“We’re trying to get a schedule before spring,” Sasuke adds.

“Well, if you need a model, I’m up for it. Support Karin and all.” Then, he gives Sasuke a wide grin. “I’d love to wear that orange suit I helped sew, by the way.”

Sasuke rolls his eyes. “Of course you would.”

They fall into silence again, but not for long, because Naruto then asks, “What’s up?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know… This is nice and all, but we don’t do this,” Naruto points out.

“It beats a love hotel,” Sasuke teases him, making Naruto laugh. It’s so ridiculously easy having him there, like they’ve been doing this for a while. He could get used to it.

“Anything beats a love hotel,” Naruto says with a snort.

“So do you want to do this?” Sasuke asks.

Naruto looks at him like there’s sun in his eyes—eyes narrowed and confused. “Eat Yoshinoya with you at eleven pm?”

Good thing Sasuke deflating doesn’t come with a sound effect. “I forgot you have the intellect of a rock.”

At that, Naruto just scoffs and rolls his eyes. “I know what you’re trying to say,” he prefaces. “I don’t know though, do you? You said you”—he curls his fingers into quotation marks—“‘put your career first.’”

“And you”—Sasuke does the same, feeling himself inevitably smile—“‘just wanna get laid.’”

The tension breaks when Naruto sees Sasuke’s smile and bursts into laughter about it. “We’re idiots,” he groans. “I’m pretty sure I just said that so I wouldn’t get my feelings hurt.”

Sasuke can’t say the same, but… “I’m willing to try,” he announces. “Try out things with you, I mean. Though I can’t guarantee it’ll be easy.”

Naruto’s eyes widen and he’s on his last bite, so he sets his chopsticks down but takes his time chewing. “This is big of you, Sasuke,” he notes after he’s finished eating. “Are you sure?”

“Do I look like the type to say things on a whim?”

Naruto stumbles on his answer: “Kind of, yeah—Wait, no, yeah, that’s not you. But in any case, I’m touched.”

“So what now?” Sasuke prompts.

“Well, if you’re willing to try,” Naruto begins, all sheepish now, “then so am I.”

Satisfied, Sasuke returns to eating his food. Truth be told, he can just barely stomach it; he’s just anticipating the chance to bask in this new feeling with Naruto. A giddy excitement like a kid’s takes root in his mind.

When he’s done, he asks Naruto if he wants to check out the shirt in his room. He helps Naruto put it on after Naruto dutifully takes his sweater off then fastens the buttons. “It looks good on you,” Sasuke says before leading Naruto to the little full-body mirror to see.

“Yeah, it does. You sure I can keep it?” Naruto asks while angling his body in all sorts of ways.

“Of course. It’s a gift. I want you to have it.”

Naruto has this silly grin that makes Sasuke pull him back closer to him to wipe it off with a kiss, Sasuke making quick work of the buttons he so meticulously did just a few moments ago. He has to set it back on the hanger, however, which makes Naruto pout till Sasuke comes back to him and licks into his mouth.

“How many layers are you wearing?” Naruto complains as he tries to peel off Sasuke’s shirt.

“Figure it out,” is all Sasuke says before leaning back in to kiss him. The answer is two, but that’s too many for Naruto to count, judging by his sigh of disappointment when Sasuke lifts his arms up to get rid of his sweater only to reveal a collared shirt underneath.

So Sasuke ends up taking it off himself but doesn’t get anywhere because Naruto puts his mouth on him immediately, lips tracing over his collarbone and the side of his neck. He’s so warm, Naruto is, that it feels like he’s running a fever.

“You’re so hot,” Naruto murmurs against Sasuke’s skin. He’s lowered himself a fair bit that he’s now laying kisses on Sasuke’s stomach, his hands trying to undo Sasuke’s pants without looking, and Sasukes breath hitches. “It’s unfair.”

Sasuke pulls Naruto up, cupping his face in his hands. “_You’re_ gonna say that to _me_?” he says, not waiting for a response to kiss him. He really could get used to this. Naruto gasping against his mouth, grinding into Sasuke.

Naruto has a nice ass, too. He lands first on the bed completely naked, ass up, and Sasuke swears he’s going to die. He quickly gets his own clothes off as well so he can join Naruto on the bed then places his hands on the backs of Naruto’s thighs to get him on his hands and knees—Naruto makes this cute little wiggle of his hips in anticipation.

Sasuke starts with the nape of Naruto’s neck, a slow and heavy kiss to make Naruto shiver. Then he brings his head down, tracing the line of Naruto’s spine with his mouth before ending just on the tailbone. He has to pause because of how fast his heart is beating, how hot his face feels.

So he asks, “Is this okay?”

“Please,” Naruto keens, doing that wriggle again. That ends up being enough encouragement for Sasuke to spread him open and put his mouth on Naruto’s entrance.

It’s funny, this noise Naruto makes that reminds Sasuke of a dying rat. He ends up laughing into Naruto to the point that he has to pull away and tease him with a finger instead while he reaches for the bedside table for condoms and the bottle of lube.

“You’re ridiculous,” Sasuke tells him as he preps himself, needing only a few strokes to get hard so he could put the condom on.

“Just wait till you get what’s yours, Uchiha,” Naruto counters.

As Sasuke aligns himself with Naruto’s entrance, he replies, “Really? When’s that?”

“I hate—” Naruto stops when Sasuke enters him, the room quiet except for their breathing. When Sasuke’s all the way in, he reaches forward for Naruto’s dick—

“Where is it?”

“What—_Oh_, I took it off.”

“Why?”

“I thought it freaked you out.” After a pause because Sasuke’s brain’s stopped functioning, Naruto says, “Should I put it back on?”

In a way, Sasuke’s definitely lost. He gives an embarrassed but definitely not timid_ Yes_ then goes back to touching him, enjoying how Naruto tilts his head back to let out a groan. There’s also a rustle in the sheets where Naruto crumples them in his fists.

He lets go and gets back to fucking him, going slowly at first till Naruto reaches down a hand to jack himself off and encourages Sasuke to go faster.

Sasuke’s never come at the same time with anyone before. It’s so coincidental, but he sees it as a good omen, even as Naruto spills over his freshly changed sheets.

They both wait a little to settle down before they start moving again. Sasuke pulls away and peels off the still-warm, still-wet condom and gets off the bed to throw it in the trash can. When he comes back, Naruto’s made himself at home in the sheets, head on the pillow.

“Spending the night?” Sasuke asks.

“You have a much nicer bed,” Naruto answers simply. “Come on, tell me a story.”

Sasuke settles down into the bed as well then turns to his side to face him. “What do you want to hear?” He can feel the wet patch on the bed near his thigh, but it’s not a cause for concern.

“Why’d you become a fashion designer?”

“Little me wanted to be a policeman, like my older brother. Then I wanted to be a lawyer,” Sasuke tells him as he fights his eyes that want to slip shut. “But I was already interested in fashion at a young age and I wanted to—I don’t know—make beautiful things.”

“It suits you.” Naruto moves closer to Sasuke on the bed, mouth barely on Sasuke’s cheek, but his breathing is nice and warm. Sasuke waits for him to say something else until he realises Naruto’s fallen asleep.

***

“Thanks for coming,” Sasuke says as he kisses Ino on both cheeks. To Sakura he gives a smile and a bow and thanks her for coming as well.

“I’m excited!” Sakura gushes. “You’re expanding into menswear?”

“If we’re lucky,” Sasuke tells her. “Someone at the door will lead you to your suits. Please enjoy the show.”

Sakura and Ino head inside and Sasuke spends more time talking to the other guests before heading backstage for last-minute fixes. He finds Suigetsu chatting up a model in a pair of pastel blue shorts and a matching _haori_ with palm trees and a sun done at the back in _tsutsugaki _while Jūgo fixes the frayed hemline of another model’s overcoat.

Karin’s talking to Naruto, who’s in the transcendent orange suit that everyone agreed on is the centrepiece of the show, and Sasuke’s heart flutters.

“Hey,” Sasuke says as he comes up to them, landing a kiss on Naruto’s cheek. “You look so good, babe.”

“Thanks to Karin,” Naruto teases, but Karin turns redder than her hair all the same. “You look nervous.”

“There’s just a lot on the line tonight,” Sasuke confesses. “Right, Karin?”

“Yeah, but I think we did a really good job,” Karin offers as she scans the room. “We deserve to celebrate.”

Naruto pipes up with: “For what it’s worth, I’d buy a couple outfits here.”

“Don’t say that; you’re getting your teacher’s licence,” Sasuke scolds him.

“I’m trying to be supportive,” Naruto tells him with a roll of his eyes.

“Me, too.”

“You guys done?” Karin butts in. “We got a show to start.”

**Author's Note:**

>   * Saffiano leather - leather with a crosshatched print that's also difficult to scratch, most notably used in Prada brags
>   * Bunka - Bunka Fashion College, based in Tokyo
>   * _zori_ \- Japanese wooden sandals that look like flip-flops
>   * _shibori_ \- a Japanese hand-dyeing technique that features tying, compressing, and knotting fabric together before dyeing to produce a unique print
>   * _tsutsugaki_ \- another Japanese dyeing technique where rice paste is put on the fabric in a pattern and left to dry before the fabric is dyed and the paste is removed
>   * _haori_ \- a kimono-like jacket that doesn't close over the front
>   * oud wood - resinous wood that's really expensive and popular in high-end men's perfume
> 
> that's it! thank you so much for reading and i hope you enjoyed it 💕 i'm planning the sakuino side story to this bc i'm weak but that'll take a while bc of school and all… ;_____; anyway i'm also on [twt](https://twitter.com/heartdispIay) and [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/heartdisplay) if you wanna talk!


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